Can vomiting bugs sometimes be contagious much longer than 48hrs?

[fuzzpig]

Like, a week?

DCs had a vomiting bug - no diarrhoea but bad fevers - just over two weeks ago, younger one exactly 24hrs behind older one. I was super paranoid (emetophobic, though am gradually defeating it) but despite feeling rotten DH and I didn't actually get sick.

Just over a week later teen DSD got sick. Other DSCs didn't (they don't live with us but had seen us in the meantime)

All done and over with, but DSCs were here just for a few hours today and DSS is now really sick. He'd had a headache earlier but the vomiting was out of the blue.

Is this a coincidence and different bugs, or is it some weird one that takes longer to show itself? I was hoping it was always 48hrs as that's what schools/hospitals say, but I'll be honest, the panic is starting to rise.

The vomiting only lasted a few hours BTW, followed by bad fevers/delerious babbling about 12hrs after. Not like any bug my two have had before.

My understanding is that a person is contagious up to 48 hours after their last symptom shows. Whatever that symptom may be. However, the anything that has been touched by the sick person such as the surfaces in your home, can carry the bug for weeks. That is why it is such a nasty bug to get rid of and hospitals and GP offices don't want people to come in unless an emergency because it is so virulent. They can't remove it from surfaces and therefore spreads so easily. The best we can do is constantly wash our hands.

I don't know if that answers your questions.

I've been wondering the same. We've all had the same bug (sounds similar to yours), spaced out over several weeks. You think you've escaped, but no, it gets you in the end.

Oh bugger :(

I'm afraid I've heard same thing as jwpetal and that fabrics /soft surfaces are most likely to harbour the bug .
Though having said above ,I got this info sometime ago and I think I was researching something like norovirus ,I don't think it applies to every stomach bug .

Big sympathies ,vomiting bugs are the pits .

Fabrics, really?

DSS is feeling much better - he has uni exams looming and reckons it was stress related. So I think I'll tell myself it was that :o otherwise I will be panicky for ages. Obviously I will deal with it should I catch something, at least what the DCs have had is very quick

all you can do is bleach the surfaces and boil wash fabrics such as towels and sheets. I think personally it is worthwhile trying. Get rid of hand towels entirely for weeks. Make sick person stick to separate toilet if there is that option. clean kitchen scrupulously and stick to eating hot food. Nothing is foolproof but I am convinced it helps if you are very careful.

also as an emetophobe my routine helps me to cope and I now panic less when someone is sick.